Mitsubishi Motors'headquarters complicit in data rigging: transport minister

Following Japan's Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Industry representatives inspecting Mitsubishi Motors' headquarters on Friday, the automaker's head office along with a subsidiary have now been implicated in the embattled firm's falsification of fuel economy tests.

Following the inspection, it was found that a product development official based at the automaker's headquarters in Tokyo had green-lit the fabrication of fuel efficiency data, after being consulted by a manager working for one of the maker's subsidiaries based overseas.

Transport minister Keiichi Ishii suggested at a press briefing on Friday that Mitsubishi Motors itself oversaw the data rigging, which had initially been pegged on the parent company's subsidiary.

"We want to reveal the headquarters' involvement," Ishii was quoted as telling the briefing, adding that Mitsubishi Motors was now expected to conducted another probe on its data falsification dealings and report its findings next week.

Local media said Friday that Mitsubishi Motors used one of its subsidiaries in Thailand to collect favorable fuel efficiency data as the climate in Thailand can help produce better results in resistance tests, with the manager in Thailand alleged to have manipulated the data in February 2013.

With Mitsubishi Motors being slammed recently by the government for falsifying data and tests related to the fuel efficiency of some of its minivehicles, possibly since 1981, leading to mass diminishing public trust, Nissan said Thursday that a capital tie-up with the embattled maker would help it to reestablish a firm financial base and offer both parties more growth opportunities.

Nissan Motor Co. confirmed Thursday it will buy a 34 percent controlling stake in smaller rival Mitsubishi Motors for 237 billion yen (2.17 billion U.S. dollars), with both firms saying that the tie-up would help Mitsubishi Motors to secure essential revenue and help its image following its massive fuel economy data scandal.

Mitsubishi Motors, since revelations of its fraudulent practice regarding presenting embellished fuel efficiency data came to light last month, has seen its domestic sales plummet, compounded by the embattled maker also admitting Wednesday that the cases affected nine more models.

Mitsubishi Motors had initially submitted evidence showing it had falsified data on the fuel efficiency of some of its own and its client's vehicles, and said that methods used to collect data pertaining to fuel economy were not in line with Japanese standards.

The firm, which dates back to 1917, initially said that it had not complied with Japanese protocols on such data collection since 1981 and had opted, instead, to use favorable methodology for testing the efficiency of four minicars that would aggrandize the results by as much as 10 percent.

The number of models, according to Mitsubishi Motors'latest account, however, now spans as many as nine models, including a sports utility vehicle, meaning the scandal is now not just related to minicars. Endit